Our Lady & St Patrick’s Curriculum Aims, Principles & Purpose

At Our Lady & St Patrick’s, we recognise that we are building the foundations for life-long learning with Christ at the centre. We want to capture and nurture a love of learning that our pupils will carry with them as they grow.

We therefore strongly believe that learning should be memorable, hands on, active and challenging. Our curriculum is carefully planned to ensure that all our pupils are encouraged to reach their full potential.

In order to achieve this we recognise the need to constantly review our practice, to ensure our goals are being achieved.

Curriculum Principles and Purpose

Our curriculum will:

• Develop skills, knowledge and understanding to enable children to think and act spiritually and morally, and to allow them to engage in the culture in which they live and to understand and appreciate the cultures of others.
• Provide a rich, engaging and memorable programme of study, which is tailored to the needs of our pupils and one which overcomes potential barriers to learning that we as a school identify.
• Develop pupils’ subject specific knowledge, understanding and skills to inspire a love of learning aligned with national intent, so that pupils can reach and exceed their potential to directly impact their life chances and own future aspirations.
• Develop the behaviours that pupils will need to succeed in the world and which create confident and successful lifelong learners.
• Inspire pupils to learn with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people.

The overarching aim of our curriculum is to provide opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident, successful learners with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and to wider society.

Our curriculum is underpinned by a focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding, ensuring that children are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

As a school we provide a highly inclusive environment, where learners enjoy their education and make good progress in all subjects and areas of learning. A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.

Pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through appropriate extension activities. Those who struggle are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace, or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs. We encourage children to take ownership of their learning and development, and provide opportunities for them to develop strategies for working both independently and collaboratively.

As well as promoting all of these values we ensure that children are fully aware of how to keep themselves safe, as well as who to talk to if they have a problem.

Our Curriculum provides pupils with memorable experiences, through diverse and rich learning opportunities, through which children can develop a range of transferable skills. The children's own community, its heritage and traditions are frequently used as a starting point for engaging interest. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Children feel safe to try new things and they take pride in their work and in all their achievements, both academic and otherwise.

Pupil engagement with learning is further supported through high quality visits and visitors into school, to further enhance our curriculum and provide opportunities to broaden children’s life experiences. This includes a schedule of residential visits for every Key Stage Two class, with activities linked to the topics and themes being studied by each class. In addition, there are regular trips and visitors into school taking place throughout the school year in every class. These trips and visits are, again, closely linked to the themes and topics being studied and help to provide first-hand, exciting opportunities for children to see their learning ‘brought to life’.

Across school, the children are provided with regular opportunities to work both independently as well as alongside others, to develop social skills both indoors and out. This ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of quality-first teaching, supported by targeted, rapid and proven interventions, where appropriate. In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on pupil outcomes.

Our curriculum is carefully designed and regularly reviewed, to ensure it is effective, engaging and relevant. It is designed to provide broad and rich coverage of engaging and age-appropriate themes and topics, whilst allowing for clear progression in skills in all subjects, year on year.

In order to ensure that our curriculum is always relevant and engaging, Subject Leaders play an important part in leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review.